11/26/05 Protest Against the Beagles' Torturer!

After the illegal experiments at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb, Animal Friends invites you to a protest against the beagles torturer

Four months ago, at the time when the general Croatian public was already informed about the dirty affairs at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and the beagles kept in smelly, narrow cages, dr Antun Brkic had the nerve to perform arbitrary and ruthlessly arrogant experiments on dogs that were officially in quarantine, during which he and his co-workers fractured bones of 22 beagle dogs. The bone fracturing was performed despite the fact that this "scientific" project was not ratified by the ministries in charge and against the decisive protest of societies for protection of animals' rights, celebrities, Croatian media, and general public. Nevertheless, Antun Brkic is still holding his teaching position at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

Animal Friends invites all citizens to a protest, demanding that all those who are responsible for the beagle affair finally be punished. Antun Brkic should immediately be suspended from his teaching position at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

We also demand that Antun Brkic be expelled from the academic and scientific community, which has, because of its inertia, tolerated among its ranks a failed, would-be scientist, who claims to be morally and ethically justified in torturing and abusing animals.

The protest with banners and a megaphone will take place on Saturday, November 26, 2005, at 12:00 noon, in front of the building in Dugave, Hribarov prilaz 9, where Antun Brkic lives. The rescued beagle dogs, which suffered by having their bones sawed by Brkic and were meant to be killed after several months of experiments, will be present as well.

Antun Brkic has been suspended only from the position of the Director of the Surgery Clinic and the Head of the Clinics at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, but he is still working and teaching at the Faculty despite the fact that:

Ljiljana Pinter, the Dean of the Faculty, stated in writing that she would suspend him from all positions at the Faculty until the Ethical Committee has reached its decision

Criminal investigation of the case has not been concluded and the ethical committee has not met in session

During the official quarantine, Brkic and his co-workers have violated the Law on Veterinary Care and the Regulations on the Conditions and Duration of Quarantine for Imported Animals, because of which the Ministry of Science, Education, and Sports pressed charges against Brkic with the District and State Attorney's Office, while the Zagreb Association of Animal Welfare Organizations sued him for abusing and injuring animals

The whole procedure contained serious formal and legal flaws, which are currently under investigation by the District and State Attorney's Office

Ministry of Science, Education, and Sports never approved of financing the project entitled "The Efficiency of Blood Clot as the Carrier of BMP in the Healing of Long Bones," which included experiments on rabbits and dogs

Several regulations of the Statute of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb have been violated

The Faculty has not approved of establishing the quarantine for imported beagle dogs on its premises

Experiments of bone fracturing with the purpose of investigating the Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) have already been performed on animals, which violated the Article 28 of the Animal Welfare Act, and three years ago they were performed on humans as well

According to the mentioned law, experiments on animals are admissible only if the supposed pain, suffering, or injury inflicted upon them can be ethically justified through the expected results, which should be of significance to humans or animals, i.e. science, which was not the case.

Such crime, which has no precedents in the history or practice of Croatian veterinary medicine or science, undoubtedly points to the circumstance that the existing flaws in the present Animal Welfare Act are being used in order to torture animals for personal interests.

Therefore, we demand that the prospective Animal Welfare Act should include establishing an Ethical Committee, which would control all experiments and thus be able to use the law in order to prevent and rigorously punish arbitrary and cruel torturing of animals.

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Animal Friends is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, founded in 2001 with the aim to promote animal protection and animal rights as well as veganism, as ethical, ecological and healthy lifestyle.
Animal Friends Croatia is a member organization of EVU,
Eurogroup for Animals, ECEAE, FFA, IAFC and OIPA.